Thousands forced to flee theme park fire

By Linus Gregoriadis

12:00AM BST 22 Jul 2000

SEVEN thousand people were evacuated from a theme park yesterday when fire destroyed two timber rides and a boathouse.

One hundred firemen fought for nearly three hours to control the blaze at Thorpe Park, near Chertsey, Surrey. The county's fire brigade, which sent 15 engines, said there were no reports of injuries among the evacuees who included children starting their holidays.

Christina Corbett, a student from Twickenham, south-west London, who had just come off one of the rides when the fire started, said it had been closed earlier, but reopened. "We got on and when we got in the building there was a plastic burning smell like incense. We couldn't see any fire or smoke, but there was definitely something burning.

"We thought it might be electrical. When we got off we told one of the staff about the burning smell and he said he would try to find out what it was, but that they hadn't found anything before."

She added: "We went to a restaurant next door to the ride and a minute later we saw lots of people rushing about, leaving. We went outside and could see lots of smoke billowing out from the ride, then we heard a huge fire alarm and were told to leave the park."

Aisha Shukat, 17, a student from Wembley, north-west London, was on a family day out celebrating a cousin's 10th birthday. She said: "When we first spotted the smoke we thought it was part of one of the attractions, but then we saw really high flames and knew it had to be something more serious. It was quite scary because for about half an hour two of my 16-year-old cousins were missing."

Gill Cocklin, 45, head of a nursery school in South Ascot, Berks, was with six teachers who had taken seven children for a day out. She said: "I could see lots of smoke and thought it was coming from a ride, but when we heard the fire engines we decided to leave."

The fire quickly spread to other attractions after it started at the Mr Rabbit's Tropical Travels water ride in the Ranger County area at 3.20pm. Glenn Earlam, Thorpe Park's divisional director, said the site's evacuation procedure had gone smoothly and no one had panicked. "The public were very co-operative."

The park is expected to reopen today after staff worked through the night to clean up the mess. Emma Hart, a spokesman for the attraction, which draws one million people a year, said the cause of the fire was not yet known.